It's very rare in scripture where Jesus was
either amazed, taken back, or expressed delight in
something.
He loved everyone, but a couple times when
he saw great faith, he was taken back
by it.
He even pointed it out to his disciples.
And then in his own hometown, he was
amazed at their lack of faith.
And there's a couple places in the New
Testament where the Lord has something affect him
in a deep way.
I don't know if there's anyone quite like
this that I'm going to read to you.
Because the person who affects Jesus, he says,
she's done a good work to me or
for me, but literally in the Greek, it
says, she's done a good work in me.
In other words, he took a delight in
what I'm about to describe to you.
He took some inner delight.
Should I say encouragement?
Can I say it sparked fresh joy in
him at a critical time?
Whatever it might be, if you tell me
and say, oh, God did something great and
it really blessed me, I would say, yeah,
I get that.
That's been the story for 2,000 years.
But this is Jesus saying to someone, no,
no, she just blessed me.
Whoa, I want to know about that.
I also want to know about it because
it links us together with a phrase theologically
that's very important, which is worship.
Everyone say worship.
The catechism of the church in England says
basically that we were created or it's part
of the apostle's creed that we were created
to worship God.
We were not created to eat.
We were not created, although we need to
eat to live.
You're not created to vacation or procreate and
have children.
You're not created to get dressed and be
a fashion plate and GQ and all that.
But what we were created for was to
worship God and enjoy him forever.
That's what's going to happen in heaven.
No one's texting.
Oh, how many are happy no one's texting
in heaven?
Because if we get up there and I
see you on your little thing, I will
ask Peter to have you removed because...
No.
Notice what makes heaven, heaven.
Everyone's taken up with Jesus and they're worshiping
and that's what the delight is.
So this story has lessons for us because
it has to do with worship.
Now we live in a day where praise
and worship is a major industry.
And right while this meeting today, there's probably
a thousand praise and worship songs being written
today by churches, musicians, whatever, and it can
get generic.
And in some churches, I noticed as I
travel around the world, you can begin to
worship the spirit of worship.
You begin to worship an atmosphere, not God.
You want to create a warm and fuzzy
moment, which has emotional overtones, but it's not
people making real heart contact with the Lord.
And thus lives are not changed.
Sin is not being convicted of.
Why?
Because you're not really in the presence of
God.
You're going through a praise and worship ritual
and it can be quiet.
You can light candles or you can lift
your hands and go like this.
It all can become a ritual if you
lose the reality of it.
How many say amen?
So now this is why we had a
lot of lessons in here.
So let's see what we can gather.
It's found in the book of Mark, Mark
14.
Now the Passover and the festival of unleavened
bread were only two days away.
This is toward the end of Christ's life
on earth, the last week of his life.
And the chief priests and the teachers of
the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly
and kill him.
Just stop there and see what he's surrounded
by.
A religious feast is coming, the famous Passover,
which was concurrent and then followed by the
unleavened bread celebration.
The chief priests, that's the religious leaders and
the teachers of the law were scheming to
arrest him and kill him.
How do you minister?
How do you preach?
How do you function when people around you
are looking at you to kill you?
To kill you, not I want him out
of town.
We must kill him.
It shows you how twisted religion can make
you.
Without really knowing God, you can get nasty
and be going to church every single Sunday.
So the Bible tells us, but notice their
hypocrisy, but not during the festival they said
for the people may riot.
Not because it's wrong, we just don't want
to cause a scene.
We're going to kill the dude, but not
now because it just won't work.
While he was in Bethany reclining at the
table in the home of Simon the leper,
I'm so glad Jesus had friends like Simon
the leper, right?
A woman came with an alabaster jar, a
very expensive perfume made of pure nard.
And she broke the jar and poured the
perfume on his head.
In the King James, it says alabaster box.
There's nothing in the Greek that refers to
any kind of box.
This is like a vial or a jar
of precious perfume.
And if you break the top, you can
pour it all out.
Some of those present were saying indignantly to
one another, why this waste of perfume?
It could have been sold for more than
a year's wages.
That's how valuable it was.
And the money given to the poor and
they rebuked her harshly.
So that's very strong in the original language.
They just didn't yell at her.
They were harsh.
What are you doing?
Stop that.
Leave her alone, said Jesus.
Why are you bothering her?
She has done a beautiful thing in me
or to me.
But the Greek actually has, she's done a
beautiful thing in me.
The poor, you always have with you and
you can help them anytime you want, but
you will not always have me.
She did what she could.
There's a good lesson for life.
Do what you can.
She poured perfume on my body beforehand to
prepare for my burial.
In other words, it was prophetic because he
was going to die soon.
Truly I tell you amazing wherever the gospel
is preached and Jim symbol is fulfilling this
verse today, wherever the gospel is preached throughout
the world, what she has done will also
be told in memory of her.
In other words, as long as the gospel
era exists, when people preach, they're going to
regularly remember her, even though her name is
not given.
We know its name is Mary from the
other accounts, but she's always going to be
mentioned.
Why?
Because this thing touched me so much.
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went
to the chief priests to betray Jesus to
them.
They were delighted to hear this and they
promised to give him money.
So he watched for an opportunity to hand
them over.
Now there's quite a sandwich.
In the beginning and at the end, you
have nothing but darkness.
You have religious leaders planning to kill an
innocent man who happens to be the Messiah
that they told the people was soon to
come.
He was right in front of them and
instead of accepting him, they not only rejected
him, they planned his demise.
At the end of the passage here, verses
11 and 12, we have Judas who for
money, for greed, betrayed Jesus Christ.
In the middle, you have a woman, not
darkness, she's light, not hatred and scheming and
cunning and religious facade and then behind the
scenes, it's all vicious.
How are we going to kill him?
What a horrible way to live, acting good
around people in the temple and then planning
murder.
No, you have her loving, adoring, worshiping.
Lastly, you have greed.
Judas, greed, greed.
He betrayed the son of man, the son
of God for what?
For money.
How many people have lost out with God
because of filthy money?
Sold out what God wanted to do in
their life because of money.
No wonder Jesus said you can't serve God
and mammon or money.
That goes for ministers, for people in the
church.
I've learned a long time ago when push
comes to shove, many people pick money over
God.
They're all for God unless it costs a
sacrifice.
No, I'm not sacrificing money.
No, no, no, no.
Here's a lady pouring out a year's worth
of perfume, a year's salary worth of perfume.
It's just the contrast and now we see
Jesus and we see her coming.
He's sitting at table.
They didn't sit back in those days.
The literal Greek there is, of course, they
reclined.
The Jewish people copied the Greek culture and
what the Romans did, they reclined when they
ate.
It was kind of like a short sofa
and you would sit back and lean back
and eat.
You didn't sit at a table like we
do in a restaurant.
As Jesus is reclining and eating this meal
at Simon the leper's house, it seems as
if his leprosy had been cured.
He'd been healed by Jesus and now Jesus
was following up.
That was one of his buddies.
He was at Simon the leper's house.
Oh, what a low life thing for the
religious leaders.
They were used to pomp and ceremony and
being with the elite and here's Jesus at
a former leper's house eating a meal with
common people.
What a low life.
Now she walks in.
I see her coming.
She's not looking around.
She doesn't care what anyone thinks.
She comes.
She breaks the top of it and she
pours this over his head and then the
commotion and then Jesus says those words of
commendation, which are so incredible.
First of all, he rebukes them for rebuking
her.
He says, leave her alone.
Leave her alone.
Why are you mad at her?
Of course, who was rebuking her?
It says the crowd that was there and
probably all due respect that included the disciples.
Certainly Judas because he said that money could
have been saved.
We could have cashed that in.
Why did he want that to happen?
Because he was robbing the pot blind.
He was stealing and then Jesus closes it
out by saying, see this woman, as long
as the good news about my death and
resurrection, which hasn't happened yet, long as that
story is told from time to time, my
spokesmen, my spokeswomen, they're going to come and
tell the story about this lady.
And on this hot Sunday in July, I
have the privilege of reminding you about this
unnamed lady.
What was it that she did that made
her so special to Jesus that he says,
I always want her mentioned as long as
you're talking about the good news about my
life and death and resurrection, I want her
mentioned.
Hey, remember, just bring her in from time
to time and tell the people what she
did because this memory will never die.
So this has to do now, of course,
with pure worship.
You know, in the book of John, Jesus
was in a discussion with a woman who
said, you know, should you worship on this
mountain where the Samaritans worship?
They were half breed to the Jews, half
breed people worshiping on the mountain, which I
was at when I went to Israel.
Or should you worship over on the mountain
where the temple is?
And then Jesus said something, which struck down
2,000, thousands of years of history.
He said, oh no, a day is coming
and it's already here where it doesn't matter
where building you go to, at one mountain
you go to, for the father seeks those
who will worship him in spirit and in
truth.
Truth there meaning sincerity.
That did away with the whole Jewish religion
because everything was based basically around the sacrifices
and the worship order that was done only
at the temple.
And in one sentence, Jesus just dismisses it
all because a new day has come.
We don't live under the covenant of Moses.
We live under the new covenant.
So what was it about this lady?
I want to learn from her.
How many would love to do something today
or this week that would make God's heart
happy?
Lift your hand.
I'm not talking about God making us happy.
He does that all the time, but it's
only right to think about his feelings, about
Jesus's feelings.
Always remember, just like the Bible says, God
can be made sad.
Don't grieve the Holy Spirit.
Always remember, the same person who has emotions
that can be made sad, the same person
can be made glad.
So what did she do?
Well, let's look at it.
First of all, the Bible tells us that
she transcended tradition about where you worship.
She had prophetic insight.
She realized, I don't have to go to
the temple.
I don't have to wait to the Passover.
I don't have to worry about the feast
of unleavened bread.
He's here.
I'm here.
I can worship right now.
Did you know many Christians never get to
that place in their life?
Their worship for 98% of it is
contained to church on Sunday, Tuesday and prayer
meeting.
Praise God, we're going to have church.
Well, how about the other days of the
week?
How many believe we can have church every
day of the week in that sense?
Wave your hand at me.
We can have church anytime.
But most of us have been conditioned by
the traditions we've grown up in and by
our sense of religious sensitivity that we sing
and we worship and we let it all
out and we weep in God's presence only
where it's proper in church.
She didn't know anything about that.
It's Simon the leper's house.
He's having a meal.
I don't care.
It's Jesus.
I'm going to just love him and worship
him and adore him.
I wonder how much we've been held back
by that stumbling block in our mind.
How many times we could have worshiped and
praised God outside the confines of the church,
but we now identify Christianity with the church.
How are you doing with the Lord?
I go to the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
I'm a Baptist.
I'm a Methodist.
None of these words mean anything to God,
that's how we identify now Christianity.
Where do you go on Sunday for an
hour or so?
Of course, this is far into the New
Testament.
We see all kinds of wonderful things happening
in the New Testament outside of the context
of a religious meeting.
Peter goes up on the roof in Acts
chapter 10 and he's visited and given direction
by God and he has a vision.
While he's waiting for lunch, they were slow
preparing lunch, so he went up to pray
and right on the roof, God visited them
because you can worship God on the roof.
All through the New Testament, we find Paul
and the apostles and the believers worshiping God,
receiving from God, celebrating Jesus, loving Jesus, far
outside of the confines of the church.
But for a lot of us, we don't
get there.
If we're going to give a hallelujah or
praise the Lord, we got to be in
church.
We're taught it's not right to just be
praising God in the number three train or
the A train.
Sometimes you need to praise God in the
A train.
Trust me, I've ridden the A train.
When they're packing you in like sardines, it's
very good to say, praise God, hallelujah.
Two of the most remarkable incidents in my
life of encounters with the Lord that I
can't describe, well, now thinking of another one,
three, all happened apart from church.
One time, dating my wife home from college,
sitting at the kitchen table of her house
where she lived then in New Jersey with
a minister and her mother, just talking about
the Lord, the Lord came in the kitchen.
His presence was as real as that pulpit.
We began to break down and weep and
we worshiped Jesus.
I don't know how long we sat there
because you can't put Jesus in a box.
You can't keep him in a church building.
Another time, around the same time, really hungry
for God, never dreaming I'd be in the
ministry, playing basketball at the University of Rhode
Island.
That was my life, playing the NCAA tournament
and going through all of that stuff.
Something was happening and God was reaching for
me.
I was driving up 95 from New York,
from St. Carol up back up to Rhode
Island.
While I was on 95 in the Connecticut
turnpike, I just started singing.
Why don't we sing more?
God loves it when we sing to him.
Sing unto the Lord a new song.
It doesn't say if you have a good
voice, sing unto the Lord.
It says, sing unto the Lord a new
song.
Amen.
I began to sing.
I was just happy in the Lord.
I was driving and suddenly out of nowhere,
I felt the presence of God somehow behind
me in the back seat.
I began to weep and worship God.
My crying became so violent that I had
to pull off to a rest area on
the highway.
God can meet you in a car.
Come on, how many believe what I'm talking
about?
Put your hands together.
God can meet you anywhere.
This lady wasn't waiting for, oh, I got
to wait until he goes to the synagogue.
No, he said, Simon the leper, I'm going
to worship him.
Let's start this week to worship God every
time he comes to mind.
David says, I worship him when I lay
in my pillow at night.
I water my bed with tears sometimes when
I think of his goodness.
To all of us, let's break out of
that mold of keeping God in the box
of a religious structure.
There's no such a verse telling us to
do that.
Number two, I want you to just notice
that that touched God's heart, that that touched
Jesus' heart, that she wasn't waiting for anything.
She was just worshiping him.
Forget holy days.
There are no holy days.
You all know that, right?
There's no holy days.
There's no Sabbath.
There's no Saturday.
There's no Sunday.
There's no Christmas.
There's no Easter.
There's no Passover.
Every day is sacred now that we're Christians.
Can we say amen to that?
There's no special day, special building.
The other thing is the way she walked
in, look, look, look at me.
The way she walked in, she didn't care
about anybody around her.
When you're a true worshiper, when you're in
love with Jesus, you only have eyes for
him.
She wasn't looking like, what do they think?
Or do I look good?
That's a real temptation when you preach or
you sing, I would imagine, that you're more
conscious of the audience than you are of
Jesus.
This thing is like a drug.
I was telling the pastors in Trinidad, this
thing is like a drug.
You can just like the applause of the
people or try to impress them with your
knowledge or your talent, and you don't realize
Jesus is watching you all the time.
There's an old saying that Hudson Taylor or
someone said, preach like a dying man to
dying men.
Be conscious that he's watching, he's listening.
At the end of the day, at the
end of this sermon, you don't give me
the review.
He gives me the review.
I have to end up alone with him,
and he's going to tell me how I
preach.
Did I did it to show off?
Did I do it to really help you?
What are my motives?
Am I doing this for a buck?
All of those things are searched when you
report back to Jesus.
So she's like, I don't care about the
people.
I don't care if they're impressed, and I
don't care if they criticize.
I'm going to worship Jesus.
When you come in here on Sundays, don't
be conscious of who's around you.
Try to focus in on Jesus.
What does it matter what the person next
to you thinks?
What does it matter if they go, ooh,
why are you doing that?
Why are you crying?
Why are you lifting your hands?
Hey, all due respect, later for them, we're
here for Jesus, right?
Come on, can we say amen to that?
We're here for Jesus.
We're going to worship Jesus.
We're going to praise Jesus.
And she has that absolutely single focus.
And while I'm on that, let me just
sidetrack to this.
Notice what happened to her.
This will always happen as I come to
a close.
This will always happen if you're all out
for Jesus.
You're going to get criticized.
You want to get criticized?
Be all out for Jesus.
You want to just fit in with everybody?
Be lukewarm like they are.
Just be lukewarm.
Just go to church on Sunday.
Don't mention God and his word too much.
Don't get fanatical and say, I got to
pray about that, and you'll fit in.
Just start talking about Jesus all the time
and loving him and worshiping.
And you know what'll happen?
It'll happen from other Christians, just like it
happened to her.
The crowd were followers of Jesus.
It wasn't the Pharisees and Sadducees criticizing her.
You know what the Bible says in the
original language in this passage?
Two things that are so interesting.
When she started to do that, they started
to remonstrate to each other.
They started to say like, what's up with
her?
And loud and all nasty and up in
someone's grill.
What's up with her?
What's she doing that?
Wasting that perfume.
What is she doing that for?
And then the Bible says they rebuked her
indignantly.
They didn't say, ma'am, you shouldn't really
do that.
No, they yelled at her.
They insulted her.
You don't even know what you're doing.
Wasting a year.
We could have been doing something good with
that.
See, when you're all out for Jesus, people
who are half-hearted will always come up
against you.
Listen, that's just the way it is.
You read church history, every minister who took
it serious and wanted to win souls and
didn't want to play church anymore, other ministers
would fight them.
Why?
Because he was rocking their boat.
Hey, just relax.
I got enough people paying tithes to secure
a living.
What are you getting all fanatical about this
for?
That's always going to happen.
When you and I worship with all our
heart and you and I praise God with
all of our heart and serve God and
invest our money in the things of God,
you're going to get criticism from your family,
other believers, and the world is going to
think you're totally bonkers.
But how many are with me today?
I don't care.
How many are with me?
I don't care.
I want to serve Jesus.
We want to hear him say, that touched
me.
What you sang then touched me.
I really believe when we were all singing,
and if I may say this for the
glory of God, when we were all singing
with Brandon in the choir, I lift my
hands.
I believe that was sweet smelling to God.
That's what, when you lay down in bed
at night, what gives you peace?
Money?
Sex?
Drugs?
What's going to make you satisfied?
No.
Being pleasing to God, you can lay in
bed at night and say, thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus.
So there's a good lesson there.
He was moved by the fact that she
didn't wait for a holy day or to
get in church, in the synagogue or the
temple courts with him.
She worshiped just everyday situation.
Oh, I want that more in my life.
The last one I didn't mention, I have
mentioned to you in the past that just
happened about four and a half years ago,
sitting in my living room of the house
that I then lived in, which, listen, I
kept it.
It was so sacred to me.
My wife's sitting over there.
I never told her for over three years.
It was just between me and him.
But you can meet God anytime.
I thank God we can meet him here,
but you can meet him anytime.
Don't limit him to the church.
And secondly, don't care what people are saying.
Just be focused on him.
Lastly, it was costly.
She dumped a year's salary right over his
head with that precious nard.
Spike nard is one of the old translations.
That's because the plant it comes from has
little leaves that look like spikes.
But it's a precious ointment which was only
given in quantity to someone like a king.
Maybe like a super, super, super precious perfume,
maybe a drop would be part of your
life.
But this was actually a commodity that could
be traded.
That's how valuable this perfume, this nard was
back in that day.
She dumped the whole thing.
Oh, that set them off.
You know, there are a lot of practical
people who are very practical and will criticize
you when you get exuberant about serving Jesus
and giving to Jesus.
But you know what?
When you love, you don't count the cost.
For God so loved the world that he
counted the cost and said, I'll give you
some angels, but I'm not giving my son.
No, what did he do?
Gave us his son.
When you love, you don't count the cost.
Women, men, listen to this.
Whenever you're counting the cost and you're cheap
with someone, you don't really love them.
I know that sounds very direct, but I
meant it to be direct.
Whoever you love, that's who you spend on.
That's why some guys have 75 pairs of
sneakers, but if they go out with a
girl, they say, let's do Dutch treat.
You pay your bill, I'll pay my bill.
I need to get another pair of Nikes.
When I first got a job, I was
playing ball in the summer and they had
a practicing in the summer.
And I just finished my freshman year.
I think at college, I had a red
shirt because I had transferred from the Naval
Academy and they didn't let freshmen play right
away then.
So I was working out with the team,
but couldn't play.
And I got, they got me a job
with an alumni of the school in Queens
and I got a job and my mother
was happy.
She's here now today.
She maybe remembers this.
I'd fallen in love with my wife, was
dating my wife.
And now I get my first paycheck.
Why are you clapping?
I got my first paycheck.
I took it all.
I went to the store and bought her
what I thought she might like.
Jewelry, cheap jewelry, this, that.
Am I right or wrong, Carol?
And she made believe like it was nice
when she opened it.
She went, oh my, that's so nice.
Yeah.
And I remember my mother saying, you got
your first paycheck, where's the money?
My mother, Eastern European, you save, you make
the numbers count.
And that's good.
That's good.
I said, no, I spent, I bought Carol
some stuff.
Well, what did you buy her?
I mean, what did you have left?
Nothing.
Couldn't you have just given her like, like
a little present out of the money?
No, I don't get what's funny about all
this, but how many know when you love
Jesus, you just, you get crazy.
Don't we need to be a little bit
more in love, more crazy for Jesus.
People are crazy for their gadgets.
People are crazy for their cars.
People are crazy for their hobbies.
People are crazy for their vacations.
People are crazy and spend all kinds of
money on all kinds of things.
Why do they spend that money?
Because that's what they're interested in.
And she was interested in Jesus.
So he said, leave her alone, leave her
alone.
So she gave me an expensive gift.
She did a beautiful thing in me.
She did a beautiful thing.
Wasn't that a song?
When praise demands a sacrifice, even then I'll
worship God.
Something like that.
In other words, leftovers.
What does that mean?
You give leftovers to anyone.
Like this past offering that we took.
I'm not taking another offering.
This is not a ploy to get you
to give.
I'm just saying, I wonder how many people
gave money that really mattered, that made him
happy and how many were just leftover.
And yet he's given you everything you have.
What?
Tell me, look at me.
Tell me what you have he didn't give
you.
Nothing.
Everything we have comes from him.
Amen.
And how we can get so consumed, but
not this lady.
Oh, this lady.
She just said, I don't care.
She's crazy.
You know what?
You shouldn't be doing that.
Have some common sense.
We know you appreciate him.
But I mean, be reasonable.
No, she's not reasonable.
She's breaking that thing, pouring it over his
head.
And Jesus said, no, you leave her alone.
She's done something very special for me.
And you know what?
It'll never, ever die.
Her story, as long as my gospel is
being preached, her name will be mentioned.
And I'm going to prompt this guy in
Brooklyn to talk about it.
One July in 2015, just to remind the
people that worship never dies.
Look at me.
When we were lifting our hands and praising
God, that goes up.
It never dies.
It's kept up there.
It's kept.
It never dies.
People die.
Money loses its value, but praise, prayer, all
communication with God, it has eternal shelf life.
It just keeps there in that aroma in
heaven.
Just we praise him because we love him.
I don't know about you.
I want to praise God more.
All in favor, say I.
I want to praise God in places where
people don't usually praise God.
I want to go when I'm alone, but
sometimes it'll, sometimes a hallelujah will pop out
right while you're around people.
Have you ever had that happen?
And they don't even know what it's about.
You just go praise God.
What was that?
Well, just praise God.
I want to be able to be not
distracted by people.
You know, when I went in the ministry,
I was really flopping as a pastor preaching
because I was so insecure.
And I have certain idiosyncrasies in my personality
that it took me asking my wife after
maybe six months in the pitch, keyboard player.
I said, how am I doing?
She said, the truth.
When your wife says that, it's not usually
good when they say that.
I said, yeah, the truth.
And she said, not good, terrible.
I said, why?
She's because that's not you.
You're trying to act like a minister because
I was insecure.
I didn't think I could talk like this.
If you come to my office, this is
exactly how I talk.
Am I right, brothers?
Am I right, Sylvia?
This is it.
I couldn't believe that.
I thought you had to act like a
preacher.
Praise God.
Whoa, whoa.
I just felt that there, a little quickening.
That's all acting.
I know why it's acting because I go
with those guys to eat and none of
them do that.
And when I'm eating with them, they never
go, whoa, whoa.
Pass that salt, brother.
Whoa.
So I had to die to all of
that.
And when I worship God, I cry.
I cried before when we were singing.
I had to get a tissue.
And I didn't want to cry in front
of you.
I didn't want to cry in front of
the audience.
People think I'm having an emotional breakdown.
Some people might've thought his sermons are so
bad, even he's crying over them.
Whoa, that's heavy.
But you know what?
You got to get free and not care.
Everybody just lift your hands up.
Close your eyes.
Start worshiping God out loud.
Go on.
Praise God.
Come on.
Certainly he's done something for you.
Are you nervous who's listening?
Just let God hear what you have to
say.
Te amo, senor.
Cristo, te amo.
Te amo, senor.
We love you, Jesus.
We love you.
We're in church.
We praise you.
Help us to praise you more during the
week.
We honor you.
We give you the fruit of our lips.
Our tongues go up to you.
That's why you gave us that, so we
could make noise for you, Lord.
Forgive us for being embarrassed about praising you,
Lord, for being in a straitjacket.
We can't even praise the living God because
we're so conscious of people.
We don't care about people.
We care about you, Jesus, today.
We love you.
We love you, Jesus.
We praise you, Jesus.
Jesus is here.
Just praise him.
We love you, Jesus.
We praise you, Jesus.
We honor you, Lamb of God.
Worthy is the Lamb.
Not unto us, but unto the Lamb be
glory and honor and praise.
Not unto the Brooklyn Tabernacle, not unto a
preacher, but let Jesus receive all the glory
and honor and praise.
Jesus, thank you for this service.
Thank you for the body of Christ.
We praise you and we honor you today.
Set us free to worship you more often
in all different places.
Help us to do it unconscious of what
others might be thinking or feeling or their
opinions.
Help us to focus on you, and help
us to praise you even when it hurts,
even when we have to wipe away tears
or give an offering that is sacrificial.
Help us not to be just sunny side
Christians, but help us in everything to give
you thanks and honor for you are worthy.
Let everyone leave saying, I met God.
I met the living God.
I felt God in that place.
That's what we pray, Lord.
So we give you our time of expressing
love one to another.
Bless us.
We pray it all in Jesus' name.
And everyone said, amen.
All right, no more handshaking.
I want you to hug about five or
six people.
Come on, hug a bunch of people.
Come on, hug somebody.
Hug a bunch of people.